UN General Assembly votes for ceasefire between Israel and Hamas to counter US veto
The UN General Assembly on Tuesday overwhelmingly demanded an immediate ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hamas, highlighting much of the world’s desire for an end to the bloody conflict.
About three-quarters of the body’s members voted in favor of the non-binding resolution, underscoring the isolation of Israel and the United States, which blocked a ceasefire resolution in the Security Council last week.
After the announcement of the vote, thunderous applause and cheers broke out: 153 votes in favor, 10 against and 23 abstentions. The resolution required a two-thirds majority to pass.
“How many thousands more lives have to be lost before we do something?” Dennis Francis, a diplomat from Trinidad and Tobago who is currently president of the General Assembly, said this in an address to the House before the vote. “There is no time left. The carnage must stop.”
The resolution was put forward by the UN Arab Group and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, which represents Arab and Muslim countries. Despite their support for the non-binding resolution, none of the Muslim organization’s 57 members have offered Gazans refugee status in their country.
According to local health officials, more than 15,000 people, many of them women and children, have been killed in Gaza since Israel declared war on Hamas after the militant group launched a terrorist attack on October 7, killing more than 1,200 people and killing 240 others. held hostage.
General Assembly resolutions are never legally binding, but they do carry political weight and are a symbolic reflection of the broader perspective among the UN’s 193 members.
The countries that joined the US and Israel on Tuesday in rejecting the ceasefire resolution are Austria, the Czech Republic, Guatemala, Liberia, Micronesia, Paraguay and Papua New Guinea and Nauru. Among the countries that abstained were Britain, Hungary, South Sudan and Germany.
Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, sharply criticized the United Nations, saying the adoption of the resolution made the institution more irrelevant. He said the call for a ceasefire is intended to “tie Israel’s hand and continue Hamas’ reign of terror.”
The Assembly convened the emergency session after the US vetoed a binding Security Council resolution on a ceasefire on Friday, saying a halt to fighting would allow Hamas to regroup and stage more terrorist attacks plan, similar to the devastating attack on Israel it led from Gaza. October 7.
Pressure to halt the bloodshed has increased as the war between Israel and Hamas has hit civilians in Gaza. The UN senior leadership and humanitarian agencies have said a ceasefire is the only viable way to ease the suffering of Gaza’s 2.2 million residents.
Large swaths of homes and infrastructure have been destroyed, more than 85 percent of the population has been displaced, hunger is widespread and disease is rampant, the World Health Organization said.
President Biden has long promised that the United States would continue to support Israel’s quest to root out Hamas, but earlier on Tuesday it appeared a rift had emerged between Mr Biden and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over what happens after the war .
Mr. Biden warned Mr. Netanyahu at a fundraiser that his country was losing international support, citing “the indiscriminate bombings that are happening.” Hours earlier, Netanyahu rejected a US plan to let the Palestinian Authority, which administers part of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, play a role in Gaza’s reconstruction.
The resolution adopted on Tuesday stated that Gaza was facing a “catastrophic humanitarian” situation, stressed that both Palestinian and Israeli civilians must be protected under international humanitarian law and demanded that all parties comply with these laws .
The resolution also called for the immediate release of hostages held in Gaza and humanitarian access to the enclave. But the country stopped short of condemning Hamas’ terrorist attacks on October 7.
The US and Austria proposed amendments to the resolution to condemn Hamas’ attacks, but they failed to reach the required two-thirds majority. Some who opposed the amendment, such as Pakistan, said they could not support language that condemned Hamas but did not accuse Israel of committing crimes in Gaza.
“I think most UN member states have lost patience with the US position on the war, even though many were initially repulsed by Hamas’s atrocities,” said Richard Gowan, UN expert at the International Crisis Group. He said many Arab diplomats were eager to engage with the United States earlier in the war to reach an agreement on humanitarian issues.
“Now, on the other hand, the Arab group is engaged in a campaign to highlight how few countries support the US in its opposition to a ceasefire,” he said.